House Of Representatives Resoundingly Votes Against Releasing Files On Sexual Misconduct Of Members Of Congress

Lawmakers continue to prioritize protecting sexual predators ahead of answering to the American public.

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The continued fallout from the Epstein Files cover-up has apparently done little to imbue Congress with any sense of shame. The legislative branch continued to show how the upper echelon of the U.S. government is more concerned with protecting sexual predators than providing Americans with a modicum of transparency after the House of Representatives voted to block a resolution that would have forced the release of sexual harassment claims made against lawmakers dating back decades. The resolution brought to a vote by Republican South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace called for the public disclosure of all reports on file with the House Ethics Committee on investigations into members of Congress over allegations of sexual harassment or improper sexual relationships with staff members. The House cunningly maneuvered around advancing the resolution, choosing instead to take the Machiavellian tactic of passing a motion to refer it to the House Ethics Committee in an emphatic 357-65 vote.

The decision by Mace to put the resolution forward is the latest attempt to address the rampant sexual misconduct of members of Congress. That issue came into a renewed focus in November 2025 when the Office of Congressional Conduct began reviewing allegations made against Republican Representative Tony Gonzalez of Texas following reports regarding an affair that he had with Regina Santos-Aviles, a female former staffer in his Uvalde, Texas office. Over a year after their affair became known to fellow staff members and her husband, Santos-Aviles committed suicide through self-immolation by dousing herself with gasoline and lighting herself on fire in the backyard of her home in Uvalde in September 2025.

In February 2026, another former staffer of Gonzalez provided the San Antonio Express-News with text messages between them and Santos-Aviles from April 2025 confirming the affair. After the report by the Express-News, Gonzalez resisted calls for his resignation, claiming that he was the victim of blackmail. His protestations were met by further revelations of the affair, including the release of sexually charged text messages between him and Santos-Aviles. Despite the text messages confirming the affair. Gonzalez remained indignant by refusing to resign from his congressional seat. The fallout from the scandal led members of Congress, including Republicans like Mace and Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, to pressure Gonzalez’s resignation and take enhanced measures to address and expose sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill, such as the resolution put forward by Mace.

Had the resolution passed, it would have required the House Ethics Committee to make all records concerning sexual misconduct investigations against lawmakers to be made public within 60 days of its adoption. Those disclosures would have included “all reports, including any conclusions, draft reports, recommendations, attachments, exhibits, and accompanying materials, with the personally identifiable information of victims or alleged victims redacted, related to the Committee’s investigations into violations” included in the confidential files.

Following the vote shutting down that effort, House Ethics Chair, Republican Missouri Representative Michael Guess, issued a joint statement with ranking member Democratic California Representative Mark DeSaulnier rationalizing the reasons behind continuing to keep the files from public disclosure. “Victims may be re-traumatized by public disclosures of interim work product, excerpts of interview transcripts, and certain exhibits,” according to Guest and DeSaulnier, who concluded that “witnesses, who often only speak to the Committee confidentially or on condition of future anonymity, could fear retaliation if their cooperation is made public.” Following the 357-65 vote against releasing the files, the resolution has been referred to the House Ethics Committee for further consideration. Given the public remarks from leaders on the committee against public disclosure, any hopes that the resolution has a path forward appear futile.

Representative Mace responded to the vote by excoriating the members of Congress who voted in favor of continuing to cover up the sexual misconduct of lawmakers. Like the vote against the resolution she brought to the House floor, Mace’s criticism was not constrained by party lines. “Both parties colluded today to protect predators. Today they voted to keep sexual harassment records buried, and they did it together. The establishment always protects itself, never the victims. Remember their names when they ask for your vote,” Mace wrote on a statement issued through her official congressional account on X. In subsequent tweets aiming her ire against opponents of the resolution, Mace highlighted the hypocrisy of members of Congress who have postured themselves as pursuing justice for victims of Jeffrey Epstein while voting to protect sexual predators within their own government and published the names of every representative who voted against the resolution.

The response from Mace to the vote against her resolution was not limited to criticizing its opponents. After the resolution failed to pass, the congressional representative took to a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing later in the day, where she forced a vote to subpoena the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights for records regarding sexual harassment awards and settlements under the Congressional Accountability Act. Mace’s willingness to compromise with California Representative Robert Garcia, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, to limit the subpoena to only cover members of Congress was the determining factor in granting its approval. Initially, Mace requested the subpoena to include awards and settlements made on behalf of congressional aides as well. However, the subpoena will only apply to records from before 2018.

The 2018 cutoff for Mace’s subpoena coincides with reforms made to the Congressional Accountability Act signed into law in 1995. The law created a special Treasury account managed by the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to pay settlements made against employees of the legislative branch for an array of workplace violations, including sexual misconduct. The slush fund provided settlements on behalf of members of Congress and other agencies under the legislative branch, including employees of the Library of Congress, Congressional Budget Office, U.S. Capitol Police, and other agencies at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Outrage against taxpayers being stuck with the bill for those settlements led to the Congressional Accountability Act Reform Act of 2018, which required those members of the legislative branch to pay back the cost of settlements covered by the Treasury account.

Once the infamous slush fund became operational, it paid out $17 million in settlements from 1997 to 2017 until it was reformed in 2018. Under the framework of the law, those $17 million in payments applied to a range of workplace violations, not just sexual harassment claims. However, issues with transparency have made assessing the scope of payments made to cover sexual misconduct settlements impossible to accurately assess, with victims being required to sign confidentiality agreements that have kept their claims from coming to light.

While the reforms made to the Congressional Accountability Act have alleviated the burden of payment for sexual misconduct settlements from completely falling on the U.S. taxpayer, they have done little to provide the full picture on how rampant sexual misconduct is within Congress and the whole of the legislative branch. Furthermore, the veil of secrecy in which settlements are dolled out has continued to shield the identities of sexual predators within Congress from public scrutiny. Efforts to improve transparency into the extent of sexual misconduct within Congress continue to be so vigorously opposed by U.S. lawmakers illustrate whatever records come from Representative Mace’s subpoena will, at best, only reveal the tip of the iceberg. What they have proven without a doubt is that Congress continues to prioritize protecting sexual predators ahead of answering to the American public.